SES’ New CFO Lisa Pataki (photo by SES)

Global satellite operator SES hired former Aerojet Rocketdyne executive Elisabeth (Lisa) Pataki as its Chief Financial Officer (CFO), the company announced June 6th. She will take over for Sandeep Jalan on June 16th. Jalan had been SES’s CFO since May 2020.

Pataki joins SES as it is working to close its merger with another global satellite operator, Intelsat. She previously served as a Group CFO at L3Harris’ Aerojet Rocketdyne from 2020-2023, where she drove an EBITDA margin expansion of over 5 percentage points. She also served at RTX Corporation and led the financial integration of Applied Signal Technologies, one of Raytheon’s largest acquisitions in 2011.

“I would like to thank Sandeep [Jalan] for his steadfast leadership over the last five years where he has driven continuous execution improvement and transformation while strengthening the company’s balance sheet with a competitive cost of capital and delivering healthy cash returns to shareholders,” SES CEO Adel Al-Saleh said in the announcement. “We are pleased to welcome Lisa as our new CFO. Lisa has extensive experience in the aerospace and defense ecosystem and has completed several successful M&A finance integrations. Moreover, her ability to develop financial strategies that priorities operational focus, efficiency, and profitable investments will strengthen SES’s Leadership Team, helping SES achieve our mission of being a leading satellite player.”